


Remembering Rebecca Banner

by lackluster_lexicon



Series: AvenMsn Drabbles [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Implied Child Abuse, Implied or Off-stage Domestic Violence, Mother-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-02
Updated: 2013-06-02
Packaged: 2017-12-13 17:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/827021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lackluster_lexicon/pseuds/lackluster_lexicon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nine years before Rebecca Banner died, she gave birth to her first and only child, a calm and tender little boy named Robert Bruce Banner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remembering Rebecca Banner

**Author's Note:**

> Another RP drabble (hence the year-and-a-half timeline at the end), this time for our Mother's Day writing challenge.

Eight days before Rebecca Banner died, she took her son Bruce to the park. Unlike most nine-year-old boys, Bruce wasn't especially active, so they skipped the playground in favor of simply walking together, hand-in-hand, while Bruce told her about what he'd learned in school that week and what he wanted for dinner and what he'd dreamed about last night. She asked him if he wanted ice cream and he said no, Daddy would be mad, but she promised him that she wouldn't tell - so he promised, too, and she got pistachio mint and he got good old-fashioned chocolate, and they ate their cones together on a park bench.

///

Five days before Rebecca Banner died, she told Brian she had a dinner date with her sister. Instead, she attended the elementary school science fair, where Bruce won first place for a model built from an erector set she'd secretly bought him to replace the one Brian had destroyed five years ago. She hid the trophy and ribbon in a box full of her old clothes in the basement.

///

The day before Rebecca Banner died, she sat on the floor of the bathroom with Bruce bundled in her arms, rubbing his back and humming to him as he gasped for air through his sobs. When they finally made it to Bruce's bed, he clung to her even as his tears subsided, and she stayed with him through the night. When she awoke to find Bruce still peacefully asleep, she pulled Bruce to her and cried silently into his hair.

///

Twenty-three seconds before Rebecca Banner died, she prayed she'd done enough. She prayed that she had loved him more than Brian had hated him, that he would not continue the violent legacy of Banner men, that he would remember their park visits and clandestine ice creams and trips to Aunt Susan's instead of the raised voices and jealous fists. And she prayed that he would forgive her for not being there when he realized his destiny, whatever that destiny was.

///

Over thirty years after Rebecca Banner died, Bruce fought in a battle against a Norse god and an army of alien invaders - and helped win it. A year and a half after that, he moved into a mansion on the outskirts of New York with, arguably, the earth's mightiest heroes, and found a place for himself and, slowly, his alter-ego. For the first time since college, Bruce forged connections, found himself with honest-to-goodness friends, sought and enjoyed the company of others with ever-decreasing fear. And every so often, when he was especially restless or lonely or inconveniently hungry, he would get up in the middle of the night to sneak some ice cream from the kitchen, watch infomercials, and remember those balmy, blissful afternoons with his mother in the park - and he would thank whatever forces that be that his mother had been Rebecca Banner.


End file.
